Griffin was doing a lot of complaining in the ring that the fight was stopped early. At first glance, I almost agreed. Upon looking at the replay, Griffin face planted very hard with both arms straight out to his sides and looked to be on dream street. He did momentarily lift his head before Gomi jumped on him, and landed a couple weak left hands, at which point the ref stopped the fight. For those that agree with Griffin, I’d like to point out that the extra shots Gomi landed while Griffin was on the ground weren’t very strong, but it was enough for Griffin to go limp again. More telling was the fact that Griffin never moved his left arm to cover his head or face, and almost fell down once the tried to stand up. Good stoppage in my opinion, and very good for Gomi’s UFC career.

Howard vs Ellenberger was a decent fight, but consisted of a lot of Ellenberger lying on top of Howard which prompted Herb Dean to repeatedly call for action. I’m a big fan of fights being stood up when nothing is happening, but Herb Dean seemed possessed with making sure these guys put on a good show. I thought the action was pretty good, but apparently Herb disagreed and stood them up at least twice. Eventually the stop came when the doctor looked at Howard’s eye which was nasty to say the least. I’m guessing broken bones as by the end of the fight, the swelling around his left eye was 3-4inches and wrapped around towards his ear. Regardless of the stoppage, Jake was clearly a head three rounds to zero at that point.

Okami was without question the better fighter, and I think this is yet another fight that illustrates the problem with how MMA fights are being scored. By my count Munoz went for 9 take downs, and Okami stuffed all but one. Of the one he did get, Okami was down on the mat for less then a 10 count, and yet one of the Judges actually scored the fight 29-28 for Munoz? I think its about time to make stopping legit take downs worth something, and or make take downs not count at all unless you can generate some damage in the aftermath. Okami never appeared to be in danger, despite being caught with one punch that put him briefly on his ass, while Munoz (especially in the later rounds) continued to go for the single leg which was easily shrugged off by Okami over and over again. I’m not sure this was the definitive #1 contender fight Dana hoped for from Okaim, but his record may force an upcoming titleshot if Silva defeats Sonnen next week, simply due to a lack of options.

The hype train that is Johnny Bones simply will not derail. Matyushenko was a willing opponent, but after a crazy spinning back kick landed, Jones took Vlad to the ground, transitioned to side control effortlessly, and moments later secured a nasty crucifix. Again some people may think it was an early stoppage, but Herb Dean made the right call. Vlad was completely neutralized, unable to defend himself and had his head and face ate at least eight to ten elbows in rapid succession.

The TV filler match saw an absolute sick submission from Oliveria over Elkins. Elkins took Oliveria down very early, but Oliveria (from his back), moved to full guard, then sunk in a nasty triangle. Seconds later (as if that wasn’t nasty enough), he grabbed Elkins arm and seconds later won via arm-bar. I hadn’t heard of this Brazillian kid before, but based on that performance, he’ll be on a uncoming Spike lead-in show shortly. Insanely fast and ridiculous jujitsu.

Overall a very good free show. Commercials were a pain again, but I guess that’s the price you pay when you save $50.00 for a non-PPV show. The only other thing of any note, was a quick Rogan/Sonnen interview. Sonnen is definitely a good S*it talker. Win or loose, as long as he backs it up with a good showing, then I don’t mind.

Quick-shots:

-Alan Belcher will miss his next fight with some sort of weird eye injury.

- James Toney continues the verbal bashing of pretty much every MMA fighter even seen on TV. This time his lip-service was paid to Jones, who Toney said he’d like to slap. As I stated before, I’m seriously beginning to wonder how serious Toney is taking his UFC contract and upcoming fight. It’s beginning to appear he’s simply using this as a publicity stunt.